Qualcomm buys gesture-recognition technology

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Qualcomm Inc. acquired some assets of GestureTek, a developer of gesture recognition technology. The chip maker said it plans to put the gesture recognition technology into its "current and next-generation Snapdragon processors" for smartphones, tablets and other consumer devices.

Qualcomm bought unspecified intellectual property assets related to gesture recognition, as well as some engineering resources from the company that was founded in 1986. GestureTek retains some of its assets and will continuation its business in gesture-enabled digital signs. The companies did not disclose financial details of the transaction.

Prior to the deal, GestureTek said it owned eight broad patents on camera- and video-tracking that issued starting in 1996 and said it had applied for 37 others. It has developed gesture-recognition technology for displays and surfaces used in markets spanning handsets, digital signage and heath care.

The company first got its software into handsets in 2007 in a deal with Japan's DoCoMo. It also is used in handsets from HTC, Motorola, Nokia, NEC, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG. Licensees for other products include Panasonic, Microsoft (Xbox 360), Sanyo, Sony, IBM, and Intel.

Last year the company demonstrated its software running on Android and Symbian environments. It also supports Linux, Nucleus, Windows Mobile and Qualcomm's Brew for feature phones.

"Applications processors are enabling a range of new ways for consumers to interface with their home entertainment and mobile devices," said Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice president and group president, Qualcomm, speaking in a press release. "Our acquisition will strengthen Qualcomm's smartphone product portfolio and enable our customers to launch products with new and compelling user experiences," he added.

Gesture recognition technology will be integrated into Qualcomm's current and next-generation Snapdragon processors, giving OEMs the capability to produce smartphones, tablets and home entertainment devices with user interfaces based on natural human gestures.

The debut of the Nintendo Wii and Apple iPhone heated up the market for gesture recognition starting in 2008. Hitachi and others showed such interfaces at CES in 2009 powered by chips from Canesta and others. Microsoft Kinect, one of the fastest selling consumer products in history, further spurred work in gesture recognition with a software developers kit released in June.

Geesture recognition can be used to monitor the psychological pattern of the mind of a person doing a routine work like a waiter,receptionist, driver,operator and so on. This technology has a lot of applications apartfrom those mentioned in this article. Qualcomm will add wings to this technology and fly it.

It seems that Qualcomm will give Gesture Recognition a commercial start. Still as qualcomm is not directly into device manufacturing it will still require much time that will be required for integrating with existing OSs.

As touch screen has revolutionize the smartphone segment, i believe that the gesture recognition technology has potential to improve the user experience in home appliance and gaming sectors. I saw a video on TED website about the use of gesture recognition http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html

Looks like another step forward for Qualcomm since they will now own that IP. And that, in turn, should result in an expansion of gesture recognition in the smartphone and tablet industries. It will be interesting to watch this play out and see the differing implementations. And, of course, to see the upcoming legal battles over patents in this area.

It will be very interesting to see what the mobile phones will do now with gesture recognition hardware and software. This is a new interface that feels more natural to the human. Electronics are becoming more inmersed in the way we interact day to day with our surroundings. And the important thing about this kind of user interfaces is that brings in people that normally wouldn't be a gizmo's person. Don't you think?

Follow-up to DrQuine's question: What specific algorithms are involved? I'm assuming that the design IP relates to these algorithms. Perhaps there is also manufacturing IP, potentially for the MEMS sensors? Does anyone know?

Gesture-recognition technology is a hot topic because it improves the user interface to electronic devices. How does the gesture-recognition intellectual property map out between GestureTek and Microsoft (Kinect)? Is this technology space going to spawn a legal battle?